Chapter 6 - Grant Finally Stops Protecting Himself
Grant asked to meet.
Normally, I would have refused.
But Molly was spending Saturday with him, and I needed to know exactly what version of the wedding story she might hear.
We met at a coffee shop.
Grant looked uncomfortable before he sat down.
“I saw a video.”
Of course someone had recorded Paige destroying the cake.
“I’m sorry.”
“For which part?”
He looked down.
“Everything.”
Three years earlier, Grant’s apologies had always focused on our marriage.
This one sounded different.
I opened my phone.
“Did Paige tell you things about me to push you away?”
His face changed.
That was answer enough.
“How much?”
Grant rubbed his forehead.
“She told me you were considering leaving.”
“I wasn’t.”
“I know that now.”
“When did she tell you?”
“Before we slept together.”
My stomach tightened.
There it was.
One more piece.
Paige had always claimed Grant pursued her after our marriage was effectively dead.
Grant’s version was different.
“She told me you said I embarrassed you.”
“I never said that.”
“I know.”
“What else?”
“That you were keeping records in case of divorce. That you thought I was financially irresponsible. That you’d told her you wanted someone more ambitious.”
I stared at him.
Some of those fears belonged to Grant.
Paige had apparently fed them back to him wearing my voice.
“Why didn’t you ask me?”
Grant looked ashamed.
“Because part of me wanted to believe her.”
That answer mattered.
Paige had manipulated.
Grant had chosen.
One did not erase the other.
He continued.
“And then once the affair started, she told me if I confessed too early, you’d take Molly and destroy me.”
I almost laughed.
“I never threatened that.”
“I know.”
Grant swallowed.
“She kept saying she was protecting both of us.”
Protecting.
Another word people used when they wanted control to sound generous.
Before leaving, Grant said:
“There are messages you probably never saw.”
“I’m reading them.”
“No. Voice transcripts from the old backup.”
I stared at him.
“What transcripts?”
“Paige used voice messages a lot. Angela’s archive should include automated transcripts.”
I hadn’t opened that folder yet.
Grant looked genuinely sick.
“There’s one from before anything happened between us.”
“What does it say?”
He shook his head.
“You need to hear it yourself.”
I went home.
Opened the archive.
Found the folder.
May you like
And saw the first timestamp.
Four months before Grant and Paige claimed their affair began.
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